Terminally ill boy 'had to lie on Heathrow Airport floor'

Nahuel Matias Santucho, also known as Napu, suffers from an incurable disease

A terminally ill boy was forced to lie on Heathrow Airport floor for several hours as his family waited to change planes, his mother has claimed.

Nahuel Matias Santucho was travelling with his family to Buenos Aires to spend the "last days of life" with relatives in Argentina on 13 September.

The family arrived at the London airport from Warsaw but missed their connecting flight and the 15-year-old had to be "nursed on the floor".

Heathrow said it was "investigating".

Nahuel, who breathes via a tube in his windpipe, suffers from an incurable disease that affects his brain and spinal cord.

He was travelling with his parents, brother, sister and a medical escort when their flight from Poland was delayed and arrived late.

'Clearly a distressing time'

His mother Andrea Lopez said it then took 45 minutes to leave the plane because of a problem with a lift.

They were expecting to be taken to their plane to Argentina from Terminal 5 but "this never happened" and they were instead taken to a locked corridor with Nahuel having to sit in a "very narrow and uncomfortable wheelchair".

Andrea Lopez said her son had to lie on the floor for "several hours" before an ambulance arrived

She said her son "started to moan and show evident signals of tiredness and discomfort" so was moved to the floor for him to be seen by a paramedic.

After "several hours" a British Airways (BA) employee then arranged for the family to be taken to a nearby hotel and rebooked on a flight the following day.

A Heathrow spokesperson said it was "clearly a distressing time... for which we are sorry".

They said initial investigations had found "Napu's own wheelchair was not available once he left the aircraft and he was uncomfortable in the replacement wheelchair" so was moved to the floor.

"We continue to work with all parties involved to find out all the detail of what happened and how his journey could have been made more comfortable," they said.

A spokesperson for BA said they had "provided hotel accommodation" and "arranged for a doctor to provide suitable food" but would "continue to investigate with Heathrow Airport and their wheelchair provider".